UzDaily has a short article describing reform of teacher training and higher educational establishments. Plans include a mix of centres by sector and regional sectors

Regional centers will conduct trainings for pedagogic cadres, create modern methodical and information base in such areas as humanitarian science, mathematics, natural science, sociology, psychology, etc. They will also hold targeted courses on actual directions with use of modern technologies, including ICT and Internet.

Thanya Kunakornpaiboonsiri reports on the recent 2013-2025 blueprint which will provide 4G access and virtual learning platforms across 10,000 schools:

Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak unveiled the plan to embed ICT in teaching and learning for teachers, students, and parents through the expansion of 1BestariNet (Wi-Fi) programme to all schools.

Also, the government will increase the number of ICT devices until the ratio of student-to-device reaches 10:1. He added that the ratio can continue to be lowered further subjected to the availability of funds and impact assessment.

Pratik writes about his experiences with the Indian educational system. He looks at the dynamics of student-teacher and student-student interaction producing ineffective communication. Students believe that if its in an exam it has value without questioning further.

We should have Informal education. More participatory education where even the instructor gains valuable insights from students and they discuss it should be the goal. Rather than quantifying the insights into how they will be useful in future. Even before attending a lecture the student has made up mind that it’s worthless. Why judge? Take whatever you get from it and leave the rest. This attitude is markedly absent in students

Helge Scherlund reports on a recent news report from Kazakhstan where eLearning is being introduced where they believe that by 2020 all students will be using the internet and social media in their learning.

Kazakhstan’s entire educational and scientific system involving around 18 thousand organisations and almost half a million of teachers are designed to hit the target, with a third of the country’s population striving to obtain high-quality knowledge.
Teachers are fully capable of coping with the challenge. For every teacher there are slightly more than 10 pupils out there. The government invests tremendous funds because innovations in many areas depend on educational innovations.

Fleep Tuque who is well known in both online education and virtual worlds communities expresses her passion for the concepts of virtual worlds and issues a plea to develop virtual worlds beyond the experiences and platforms of the last few years. She reflects on her experiences and hopes whilst she began to explore 3d virtual worlds seeing an open metaverse where anyone could develop in virtual worlds and improve theirs and others prospects in the real world too. She spent a lot of time developing and using Second Life for education but feels a hostage as she is not able to reuse her content anywhere else

Imagine you are writing that novel you’ve always dreamed of writing, the novel that will change the world. And it’s early on in the development of software for writing novels, so there are only one or two platforms that allow you to even do it. One of the downsides of these early platforms is, you can only ever work on your novel on their servers, and the only copy that exists of your novel only exists on their servers. But hey, there aren’t any other good options out there, so you dive in, pouring your heart and soul into writing the best novel you can.

The more you add to your novel, as the years pass, the more attached you become, until one day something terrible happens. You lose your job, or you get sick, or the stock market crashes, whatever the reason, suddenly you can’t afford to pay for access to your novel. And just like that, all that work, all that effort, gone in a blink. Or one day the company changes its mind and decides it doesn’t even want to host novels anymore, novels are not their target market now, who needs these novel writing people! And just like that, all that work, all that effort, gone in a blink

Tasnim has been exploring digital life and Islam for a couple of years. She looks at the use of clothing on avatars and whether there is a difference in exploring and expression opinions in online spaces.

Kicking off a mini-series of 3 posts about virtual worlds on One Change A Day:

John ‘Pathfinder’ Lester reports from a recent panel session held in Second Life that looked at what has and is happening with virtual worlds. One of the advantages of being an avatar panel is that the panellists can get up and wander around instead of being grouped together on a bunch of chairs. The full session is an embedded video in the blog post. They refer to the Gartner hype cycle and say that between 2009 and now they have slipped from the hype peak into trough of disillusionment.

Mal Leary of Capitol News reports on a recent study which surveyed students about how they feel about their coursework and what forms it takes. Many students said they found it not challenging enough.

Education Commissioner Steve Bowen said schools are working hard to make use of technology to provide that individualized approach. He said the department is looking at ways it may help by developing some advanced courses that could be offered online to schools that cannot afford to develop an advanced math or science class for a handful of students.

Diane Moore describes the story of Ryan Fox, a student at University of Washington as he relates his experiences and says that he loves online learning – it has changed his life!

My physics teacher even taught one class from up in a tree and another while he was kiteboarding on Bellingham Bay, where he used a live webcam to show us about velocity and friction. He also taught about momentum from the Winter Olympics in Vancouver by showing us ice skaters. I’m in honors chemistry now in 12th grade. I do lots of labs at home with my kit

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One Change a Day – A Blog Project Reflecting Educational Change Around the World. As thousands of people are choosing to learn through massive open online courses in and around the web, this blog will tell a story of how new ways of connecting with each other online are irreversibly changing education.